sportsbook #3…
what a horrible weekend. many of the favorites won, and brett favre’s interception intended for adrian peterson made me feel sick.
i was especially disappointed with chicago, atlanta, and the new york giants. new orleans looked horrible in the first half but pulled off a huge comeback. i saw a glimmer of hope in the raiders when they beat the eagles last week. a news report said they felt fired up over what a new york giants defenseman said about their lack of passion. so, what happened? the jets blanked them with 31 points!
come on!
i was helped by the colts and the patriots who followed predictions. chargers steamrolled the chiefs and got the over. the comeback by the saints also helped me out a bit. i picked a lot of winners, but some were counterfeited because the over/under didn’t pass. i thought cleveland would score a bit more, but they’re proving to be more hapless than the raiders.
if there’s an explanation for the many unders that happened this week — i will, for the time being under and due to naivete, chalk it up to a natural decline of high volume offense. i think it’s reasonable that teams score less and focus more on defense at this point in the season because of several reasons. for starters, injuries will take their tolls. running backs, after an off season full of rest, come running out the season opening gates hoping to establish running games that will set the tone for the year. a guy like clinton portis who rushes near the 20s per game is usually getting hit, and hit hard, on every play with the exception of the long breakaway that happens once in every two games. that’s a lot of damage to try to heal from week in and week out.
teams are also reviewing tape every single week to get a better read on opposing teams’ offenses. look at the titans. it happens every year. a team that stuns one year comes back to totally disappoint the next. why? part of a coach’s job is to analyze an offense/defense and pick up on the quirks and holes. football is warfare and a well thought out strategy could give an underdog all it needs to pull of an upset. in the titans case, coming off a league best record from last year, they haven’t made the necessary changes to keep them fresh.
they say any given team can win on any given sunday. the arizona cardinals came off on their bye to rip the giants offense up and force eli to turn the ball over again and again. an extra week looking at the mechanical weaknesses inspired by the new orleans demolishing of giants probably got a repeat showing several times in the arizona video room.
next sunday, baltimore comes off a bye week looking to get back on track. i had high hopes for them, but they’ve struggled. their high powered offense in their first few weeks looked like it could compensate for a relatively watered down defense. i think the team will refocus on what made it a superbowl team — defense, defense, defense. the pieces are there to balance them with flacco showing flashes of brilliance, but it’s their defense that won them football games, and i think they’re going to return to that form.
tonight, the eagles go against the redskins. coach zorn lost his playcalling duties to a supposed bingo number caller — he used to work in football years ago. i’m thinking a blowout is in the works favoring the eagles, but i won’t be surprised if we have a movie in the works about a retired genius hidden inside of a man relegated to calling out b-5.
of course, when hollywood gets it, he’ll be twenty-something, meet a gorgeous woman, and free scotland.
